UK mail operator Royal Mail has extended and expanded its relationship with online fashion retailer ASOS. The firms have extended Royal Mail’s existing 15 year contract to deliver goods, while ASOS will now make more use of Royal Mail’s returns operations back to the fashion e-tailer.

ASOS was one of the first companies to sign up to the Royal Mail Returns Portal, and has fully integrated it into its website. Customers will now be able to take unwanted goods back to the Post Office network of shops, totalling 11500 outlets UK wide. Royal Mail currently handles 75% of ASOS returns but with the extension of the relationship by 1 million items, it will now be able to handle five million returned items annually.

ASOS currently offers free returns and the Royal Mail network has a secure, fully tracked system for returns so customers and retailer alike can be assured of their unwanted items passage through the returns system to the company.

According to Royal Mail the extension of the relationship was down to the delivery company’s responsiveness during peak times, being able to manage during peak retailing times such as the upcoming festive season. Its capacity to handle deliveries on time even in the busiest periods has been a major draw to ASOS.

Such strong relationships with major e-commerce retailers are key to the newly privatised mail operator’s success as business morphs from the loss making mail delivery business to the fast growing parcel delivery business of the future. With 20% of non food items currently bought from retailers online, and this figure set to increase, such contract extensions and good relationships are set to assure the mail operator will remain a giant in e-commerce deliveries for many years to come.